The Fate of the Kurosaki
by shinigami-shane
Summary: A chance of fate prevents Ichigo's attempt to save his sister. However, rather than dooming her to a life in Hueco Mundo, she uses the opportunity to grow stronger than she ever could have been, in the process meet.
1. The Fate of the Kurosaki

Ichigo stood there, in the middle of the street, brandishing a gigantic sword resting on his shoulter. He grinned and said, "Alright, you monster…" and pointed his sword's tip at the hollow. "…let Karin go and I'll let you off easy."

Fishbone D exclaimed, "How? This makes no sense? How can you be a Shinigami? I didn't feel any Shinigami reiatsu from you before now!"

Ichigo grinned and said, "Who cares," as he drew his sword up above his head. "Now, I'll tell you _one_ more time. Release Karin, and go back to whichever circle of hell you came from, or I'll kill you."

Fishbone thought, 'With the size of that sword, if he does attack me, I'm done for. So…"

Fishbone D said, "Alright, Shinigami, you win, for now," as it backed away and a garganta opened. Fisbone D tried to jump into it, trying to take Karin with him in order to devour _her_ strong soul in order to move on to the next stage. His plan failed, Ichigo being far faster than he'd anticipated, his body dissolving into shiny blue particles as Karin flew into the garganta.

Ichigo shouted, "Karin!" and started to leap into the garganta after her, but he was pulled up by Rukia grabbing him by the collar of his shihakushō, causing him to fall to his back. He demanded, "What the hell Rukia?!" as he stood up angrily. "Why did you stop me? I need to…" and his eyes widened as he dropped down to his knees as he saw the garganta close completely, trapping Karin within its roiling, shadowy, bounds. He shouted out, "KARIIIIIIINNNN!" his desperation clear in his voice.

Rukia, far calmer, said, "Ichigo, I'm sorry. But there's nothing that you could have done once she was in there."

"What? How do you know?"

"Even the most experienced Shinigami haven't been in there and don't know how to open it. Even if they had, I am far from being one of them." She sighed and said, "I know that this won't be any comfort to you, but there _is_ a remote chance that she _could_ somehow find a way to the end of the garganta that Fishbone D opened, but that will just open up to Hueco Mundo. There _might _be someone that _could_ know how to open it from this side, but even then, as you are…" Rukia sighed. "I'm sorry, but even if you _could_ go after her, and actually make it into Hueco Mundo, there are hollows there that are immeasurably stronger than that hollow that you just defeated."

XXXXX

An indeterminable amount of time later…

Karin groaned as she slowly opened her eyes. she blinked when she found, right in front of her face, was a strange blue, metre-long, lizard-esque creature with a large frill around its neck that had bony spikes sticking out of it. What she found even stranger though, was that its face was covered in a white, bone-like, substance. She scuttled away from it, startling it and causing the frill to flare open. She said, "What…_are_ you?" a fearful look on her face. The lizard's frill started to lower, but only halfway as it cocked its head at her. She said, "Can you…understand me? Wait..." She shook her head. "…what are you doing Karin? It's clearly a lizard of some sort, so of _course_ it won't understand you. Although, come to think of it, that mask looks kind of strange." She asked it, "That mask covers your entire face, doesn't it?" The frill lowered a bit more as it nodded. "Then…how do you eat?" The lizard flared its frill and the spikes glowed as shiny blue particles rushed to them. "So then…you absorb those particle things for sustenance, do you?" The lizard folded its frill back as it nodded. "So then…you're not going to eat me…or something?" The lizard shook its head. Karin let out a relieved sigh as she put her hands back, supporting herself on them. She said, "So, I suppose I'm not in my world anymore, huh?" She looked at the lizard and said, "I don't suppose that _you_ know where we are, do you?"

The lizard looked up and scrutinized her before it walked over to her and turned around, swiping its tail through the sand, making a circle. It then moved outside the circle and repeated the action three more times. It then moved over and tugged on her hand. Karin relaxed her arm to let it. The lizard went dragged her hand to the centre circle and placed her finger down on it, before jumping on the back of her hand to force her palm down on it. it then went to the lower circle and stood in it. Karin scrutinized and said, "So then…you're saying that, where my hand is, is my world?" the lizard nodded. "Okay, then if we are in the circle that you are standing in, that would that make this place hell, right?" The lizard shook its head and moved over to the lowest circle and put an X through it with its tail. Karin said, "Okay, so that's hell." She scratched her head and said, "If you scratched that out, does that mean that you can get to the other places?" The lizard nodded. Karin excitedly said, "Then that means that you can take me there too, right?" The lizard shook its head. Karin sighed and said, "Why not?" The lizard tugged Karins hand up from where it was before placing its front leg inside it. "So…does that mean that you're too small to do it?" the lizard nodded, causing Karin to sigh again. "Then I guess that that means that I'll need to find someone bigger to do it for me."

The lizard shook its head, repeatedly and rapidly before scurrying in front of her as she stood up and saw a massive building. It flared its frill wide and hissed, louder and more threatening than before. Karin blinked and said, "You…are afraid?" The lizard nodded. Karin said, "Alright. We don't have to go there then. Is there anywhere out here that we could use for shelter?" The lizard cocked its head, thinking on the request. Eventually it nodded and Karin said, "Alright then, lead the way," before following the lizard away from the gigantic building.

After a while, Karin's stomach growled and she rubbed her stomach, chuckling as the lizard cocked its head at her. "Sorry, but for some reason I'm really hungry right now. I don't suppose that there are any butchers around here," she joked. When the lizard cocked its head, she said, "Oh, right. You probably don't know what that is, huh?" She waited for it to cock its head the other way before explaining, "A butcher is someone that carves up meat for their customers to eat." The lizard flared its frill and backed up, quivering. "Wait…you don't think that…" KArin laughed. She said, "No. I wouldn't eat _you_." The lizard folded its frill as it settled down. It cocked its head and looked directly ahead of them and started scampering towards what it had been sensing. Karin rushed after it.

It didn't take them long to reach where the lizard was headed; the top of a cliff that had a path leading down the side of it. It went up to the edge and looked down, twitching its head to tell Karin to do so as well. Karin lay down on the ground before peeking over the edge. She saw two gigantic creatures that also had bony masks on their faces. One was a strange, blue, bipedal thing that had large, foot-long, razor claws and a long tail, the other was a crimson lizard with a stocky body and a long, thick, tail that had flame-likes spikes sticking up from the end of it. Unlike the frill neck that she had befriended, this one's mask only covered the top of its head, leaving its lower jaw free to show its sharp fangs as it hissed a loud challenge. The bipedal creature roared back at it. The lizard-like creature rushed at the bipedal one, faster than Karin had thought it would be able to and tried to bite into its foe. But, it didn't matter as the bipedal creature seemingly lazily swiped it with its claws, killing it easily. It cut a piece out of it with its claws and brought it up to its mouth. After it ate the slab of meat, Karin saw it glow a bright yellow and some kind of explosion that lit up the night sky happened, leaving behind a more compact form of the creature that seemed almost human, except for the still long claws attached to the end of its thick arms that bulged past the elbow, and the long tail that it still had, though it was nowhere near as thick as it had been.

The lizard started shaking and backed away from the ledge, as did Karin, who said, "What…was that? There's no _way_ I'll survive here!" the lizard pushed at her side, next to her heart. Karin looked at it sceptically and said, "Have heart, you say?" She let out a sigh and said, "Alright then. So, what do we do now?" the lizard nodded its head towards her, and then back towards the downed hollow. Karin said, "You expect _me_ to go down _there_?" The lizard flared its frill and absorbed particles from the atmosphere. Karin had a disappointed look on her face. She said, "Well, I suppose that you _do_ have a point there. But still, even if I _did_ go down there, I'd just end up the same as that one that he just killed. The lizard tossed its head from side to side and drew two circles on the ground, one a lot larger than the other. Karin sighed as it stood over the smaller one and said, "So, you're saying that I'm so insignificant and weak that it would just ignore me?" The creature nodded. Karin sighed and said, "You know what, I don't like it, but you're probably right," and stood up and brushed herself off before making her way down the side of the cliff.

When she got there, she put her hands in her pockets, but, unsurprisingly, found nothing in them. she sighed and said, "I knew that I didn't have anything, but still, I wish I did. I suppose that that means that I'll just have to…" she gulped and knelt down by its head. She bit into the side of it and, all of a sudden, a red energy started to emit from her body that flared up and roiled around, causing her to scream in agony before she blacked out. She didn't see it, but, the deceased hollow dissolved into red reishi that rushed to Karin, enveloping her in a cocoon of flailing reiatsu.

Yet another indeterminable amount of time later, Karin woke up to the same sight as before. On her side, the lizard looking down at her. She groaned as she asked, what happened?" This time, instead of drawing an image, it lowered its head, imitating an action that it had once seen a human do in the girl's world. Karin sighed and said, "Well, I suppose that's as good a thing as an-? Huh?" She asked, "What's that?" as she saw something that had seemingly taken the place of the strange, giant, lizard. It was a bladed weapon that was still inside the scabbard, which was attached to a piece of cloth. Karin walked over to it and drew it. She turned it in her hands, seeing that it had a mostly straight blade, though it had a slight curve towards the tip and only one full side had a sharp edge, though the back of the blade was sharpened towards the tip and had two tines where the blade met the hilt, which seemed to be made from bone, and was covered in some kind of strange scaly material the same colour that the lizard thing had been. Karin returned it to the scabbard and tied it around her waist with the piece of cloth. She looked at the lizard and said, "Alright…mmmm…Rizar." The lizard cocked its head at Karin, curious about the word that she'd used. Karin said, "Well, I figure that if we're going to be together for a while, you should have a name that I can call you, and, since you've got a frill around your neck, I figure that it's appropriate." The lizard cocked its head the other way. Karin said, "Oh. You probably don't know what a name is, huh? Alright then…" she pointed at herself and said, "_My_ name is Kurosaki Karin." She pointed at the lizard and said, "I can't very well go on calling you 'lizard', or 'you', so, for now at least, I'll call you Rizar. Alright?" the lizard cocked its head, considering her words.

Eventually, it nodded and Karin said, "Great. In that case, Rizar, we'll still need to find somewhere to hide out, at least until I'm strong enough to survive out here in the open." Rizar nodded and went back to the path up the cliff. Karin said, "It's back up there?" Rizar shook its head. "It's not? Then why are you leading me back up there?" Rizar didn't even attempt to reply before moving back up the path, having no way to communicate to the human what it needed to. About halfway up the path, Rizar left it, walking along a thin ledge that continued on past the corner of the path. Karin thought, '_It wants me to follow it out there?_' and looked at the rocks above the ledge, checking for handholds. Seeing that there were some for at least what she could see, Karin stepped off the path.


	2. The Thieves Nel-Don-Pe

Karin stepped into the cave that Rizar had seen and immediately fell down and brought her hands up to cover her head as she pushed herself back towards the entrance. But it was too late. They had seen her. the dark shapes advanced on Karin and she clutched Rizar, who was already clutching her for comfort in their last seconds before they became a part of whichever hollows it was that were about to eat them.

Their fears were somewhat assuaged when the creatures emerged from the light, revealing themselves to be a humanoid hollow whose head was almost completely covered by his mask, which resembled an insect-like head with large mandibles and horns. His large, left, yellow eye, was visible through an eyehole on the front of his mask. However, his right eye was concealed by a purple eye patch, which is attached to his brow. He had blond hair, some of which stuck out from under the back of his mask. The majority of his body was purple, but he was wearing a white, armour-like vest that covered the upper part of his torso, as well as white armour on his forearms and shins. He was also wearing a loincloth around his waist, which was a lighter shade of purple than the rest of his body. His Hollow hole was positioned near his stomach, directly beneath the edge of his vest.

There was also a female Arrancar child with him that had hazel eyes and short green hair, her eyes incredibly wide. The canines on her lower jaw were larger than usual, and the remains of her Hollow mask made up a cartoon-like skull which sat on the top of her head. A crack ran along the left side of the mask and four teeth on the left side of the skull were broken off. She had a large scar coming down from her forehead to her nose and a crimson line that stretched horizontally across her face below her eyes. Her clothing consisted of a simple green gown with a hood which covered her entire body.

There was a third hollow with them that had a large, heavyset, but dumpy body with short appendages with small, white hands and feet. He was wearing a hooded yellow bodysuit covered with black polka dots of varying sizes. His head was very large, being almost as big as his body and his Hollow mask covered his entire head, the eyes and mouth functioning properly as if it was his real face. His mask resembled a stereotypical tiki mask with exaggerated colourful features, including large eyes and teeth, as well as a prominent nose.

The three creatures all took a pose as soon as they were certain that the human would be able to make out their forms and the child said, "Hello, we are, The Thieves: Nel-Don-Pe."

At the same time, the purple bug-esque humanoid said, "Hello, we are, The Great Desert Siblings!"

The yellow clad one said, "Hello, we are, The Three Siblings!" at the same time as the other two creatures.

Karin said, "O-kayy…"

The child shouted over her, saying, "Heyy! Didn'd we thay dat we'd be da Thieves Nel-Don-Pe when we dalked earlier?!"

The purple one exclaimed, 'I told you that I'd only go by 'The Great Desert Siblings'."

The yellow one said, "I definitely want to fit Three Siblings in there somewhere!"

Karin shouted, "Hey! Cool it! If you're not going to eat me or something, I want to know your Names first. Then, where exactly this is and what you are, because there's no way you're from my world!"

The purple one said, "I am known as Pesche Guatiche, my yellow-clad friend, is Dondochakka Birstanne, and this, is Nel Tu," indicating Nel with an open hand. As to your question, no. We no longer possess the need to devour souls and find the act distasteful in the extreme.

"Wait. Devour _souls_? What do you mean?"

"You are an arrancar as well, are you not?"

"Arrancar? What the heck's that?"

Pesche looked at the lizardine hollow next to the girl and said, "You didn't tell her?" the lizard flared its frill and looked up, showing that its mask encapsulated its entire face, preventing it from saying anything at all, let alone explaining concepts such as the different levels of hollow. Pesche said, "Alright then. I'll explain it. We," pointing at himself, Nel & Dondochakka, "are all creatures known as hollow." Seeing Karin about to interrupt him, Pesche cut her off, saying, "Before you ask anything, I'll probably cover it by the time I'm done." Karin settled back down to listen to the explanation. "Now, I'll start with the basics. A hollow, is created when the soul of a deceased human loses all hope and corrupts after spending too much time in the real world. A hollow will consume the souls of living and deceased creatures in order to fill the hole in their heart that appears when they first transform into the hollow. After that, if they are strong enough, the hollow can transform further, becoming what is known as a Menos Grande. More specifically, the lowest tier of Menos, a Gillian. Since you are on the sands you needn't concern yourself with either classification though, they tend to congregate in the Menos Forest and other secluded areas of Hueco Mundo."

Karin said, "So then does that mean that there are more types of 'Menos'?"

"Yes. They can be said to be at least five to ten times more powerful than the Gillian, and far superior in terms of intelligence and cunning. Now, these adjuchas are in constant threat of regressing into a Gillian if they are unable to consume enough food to sustain themselves. The strongest tier of Menos, are the Vasto Lordes. They are largely humanoid in appearance and can be considered to be at least ten times stronger than an adjuchas level menos."

Karin said, "Then that must be what that thing that we saw earlier was, right, Rizar?" Karin said, looking at her lizard friend.

"You mean to tell me that you actually _saw_ a Menos transformation?"

"Well, yeah. Why?" Pesche looked away, considering something. He said, "When I'm finished explaining things we will need to leave."

"Why's that?"

"Because, Vasto Lordes have keen senses and will probably have recognized that we are here. Even if we _are_ arrancar, there is no guarantee that we will be able to survive an encounter with one."

"What is this arrancar thing?"

"An arrancar, is what eventuates when a hollow, of any form, removes their mask. An arrancar that we used to know before we met Nel, believed that when Hollow cease being Human, they become beasts and, as Arrancar they regain their sense of reason." Karin saw Nel wince and grab her head for some reason, but didn't think too much of it. "I'm not sure if that's true or not, but at the very least we no longer feel the need to consume souls to ensure that we do not regress. I was informed by the same arrancar that Vasto Lorde, possess the same trait."

"Okay," that's great and all. But, since one of these 'lesser' hollow things caused me to come here, would that mean that a 'greater' hollow, such as yourself, would be able to send me back to my world?"

"Hmmm…yes. And no."

Karin sighed and said, "Get to the point already."

"It is true that all hollow possess the ability to open a portal to the human realm, however, doing so will send out a signal to any other hollow in the area, and I've been told that the hollow in Las Noches have come up with devices to augment that sensory capacity in certain hollow that reside there. Given the speed and power of the Vasto Lorde-arrancar, despite the distance from here to where they are, with their sonido, they could arrive here within minutes, after which there is a time delay before the atmosphere around the portal returns to normal, letting them find out where you went in your world. Are you okay with that?"

Karin sighed and said, "No. I'm not."

"Even then, that's only _if_ Dondochakka and I can somehow stabilize the Garganta for human use."

Karin sighed and said, "Well then, I'd say that there's only one viable solution then."

"What's that?"

"_You_ train _me_ to fight in order for me to survive this place and so that I can fend off whatever comes after me when you open the portal back home and hightail it out of there."

Pesche closed his eyes as he hummed and hahhed. Eventually, after seeing the strange dagger by her side, he said, "I think that that just might work. Ummm…I don't think that you gave us your names yet."

Karin thought back over their interactions and realized that yes, he was right. She grinned sheepishly and said, "Sorry 'bout that. I'm Kurosaki Karin, and I don't know what this guy's actual name is, so, for now, I've given him the nickname 'Rizar'," as she rubbed the lizardine hollows neck.

"I see."

"So, how long is this training of yours going to take? Days, Weeks?"

"You…seem to be misunderstanding something."

"What's that?"

"The skills that you are going to have to learn _can_ take months to years to learn, let alone being able to make use of them in such a way that will let you fend off an enemy of the caliber that you would be faced with."

Karin exclaimed, "_Years?!_" and thick tears started to roll down her face as she thought of not being able to see Yuzu or their brother for years on end." She gulped, forcing down the sobs that she felt coming, and wiped her face on the hem of her shirt. She said, "Alright. The sooner we start, the sooner I get home. What's first?"

Pesche said, "You're not being very modest when making your request."

In a monotone, Karin asked, "Was…that a joke? Because, if it was, it wasn't very funny."

Pesche rushed to the back of the cave and squatted in the corner, mumbling, "I worked on that really hard."

Nel piped up and said, "Hey! You meanie! Apowogise to Peshe righd now!"

Karin sighed and said, "Yeah. Alright. Sure. Whatever. Pesche, I apologise."

Pesche sprung up and rushed back over to her. He said, "Alright then. Let's get you started. First off, if you're going to survive here, you'll at least need know how to increase your body's physical defenses. To do that, you will have to condense your reiryoku and layer it above your skin."

"My what now?"

"Your reiryoku. Your spiritual power."

"Spiritual power? I have that?"

"Yes. The only way that you could see us, let alone actually come here in the first place, is if you have at least _some_ latent spiritual power within you. You need to use that to do what I just said."

"Okay, so how do I do that?"

"Hmmm…it's a bit hard for me to explain."

"Why's that?"

"All hollow are 'born' knowing how to use their powers, so we don't really need to train the way that humans and Shinigami do, though there are benefits in doing so anyway."

Karin said, "So, the long and the short of it is that you don't know how to teach me to do it, right?"

Peshe said, "Well, I can only try."

"Alright. Go for it."

"Alright. Now, hold your hands in front of you so that they are close together, but not touching."

Karin nodded and said, "Right," as she did what she was told.

"Now, I want you to focus on one point between your hands and flow your spiritual energy into that spot."

Karin nodded and tried to do it. After a while, she moved her hands together to try and force some kind of nonexistent energy together from both of her hands. She said, "Yeah. I got nothin'."

Pesche sighed and said, "Alright, I wasn't expecting you to get it the first time that you tried it anyway. For now, I think that we should go 'there'."

Dondochakka said, "There? You don't mean 'that' place? We can't! Nnoitora will…"

"No!" Pesche said, cutting him off before he could cause Nel's memories to return. He let out a relieved sigh when Nel showed no reaction whatsoever. He said, "No. I mean Las Madrugada."

"Madrugada?" Karin said.

"It means Breaking Dawn."

"What is it?"

"It's a fortress that we had during the first war against the Shinigami. There should be some tools there that will be able to help you in your training."

"I don't know," Karin said.

"Why's that?"

"You said it yourself. Hollow can use their powers innately. If it is a fortress of yours, then there shouldn't have been any tools needed for that."

"Nevertheless. We still need to relocate from here, and that is not too far away from here."

Karin sighed and said, "Alright. How do we get there?"

"We'll use Bawabawa to travel there. It should go relatively smoothly if we ride on him."

Karin sighed and said, "Alright then, let's go," and started to move back towards the entrance of the cave.

Pesche asked, "Where are you going?"

"What do you mean? Back outside, obviously."

"There's no way we could have gotten in through that way." Pesche said, "Come, the entrance is _this_ way," and left, heading deeper into the cave.


	3. Training Begins

After what seemed like more than a week of travelling on the back of Bawabawa and making no progress on drawing upon her power whatsoever, Karin, and the newly dubbed, The Three Sibling Thieves of the Desert Sands, Nel-Don-Pe, came into view of Las Madrugada. Karin looked upon it in awe. A truly massive tower, that had multiple turrets coming out of the top, shot up, she assumed, from the desert sands, surrounded by a large, clearly circular, wall, all of which was made from a strange, very pale, grey stone. Karin said, "That things huge!"

Pesche said, "According to the legends I've heard, it even goes underground for quite some way."

Karin looked at the ground and said, "There's no way! Not with all this sand, there'd be nothing to keep it standing up."

"Well, I wouldn't know about that. Like I said, I'm only going off of legends here."

"What do these stories say?"

"That a very long time ago, there was an arrancar that rose to power and tried to unite all of hollowkind together. According to the legend, he possessed some method to transform the hollow that chose to follow him into Arrancar, though that method has been lost to us. Since, as arrancar, the hollow lost the need to feast on human souls, he approached the Shinigami to come to some sort of agreement that, instead of slaying them as they did, and still continue to do, they let him turn them into arrancar. Needless to say, they refused and, instead of meeting with him to discuss his plan, they turned on him and used it to attack and try to slay him, but he was too strong for the captains that had come to the meeting and escaped here, badly injured, but still alive. He had already built the original Las Noches and started building more, Las Madrugada is just one such fortress, though given no hollow has ever found any other structures, it is possible that this is the only one that is left, and, during the war that ensued after the set-up, the Shinigami actually managed to capture this one."

Karin said, "That could have something to do with the reason that it is still in as good a nick as it is right now."

"You might have a point. However, regardless of its historicity, what we currently need should be inside…if we can find some way to get in that is."

Karin exclaimed, "You mean you don't know?!"

"No. like I said, this happened multiple millennia ago. It shouldn't be all that surprising that I wouldn't know."

Karin sighed and said, "I'm sorry. I just…" she sighed. "I just want to go back to my family as soon as possible, and that made it seem rather hopeless."

"No…" Pesche said, glancing at Nel. "…it's understandable, believe me, we know exactly what you mean."

Karin saw Dondochakka look down and a confused look on Nel's face. She thought, '_What the heck's going on with them? Are they hiding something from her? It's probably better that I keep that to myself for now until I can find out more. Either way, I won't be able to ask Nel-chan about it, since it seems to be affecting them more than her. Well, that's even assuming that she _does_ know about whatever it is that they clearly don't like talking about. Well, whatever. Knowing what it is won't affect my desire to go home anyway, so why bother?_'

It took them another two days to reach it, and then _another_ three to find out how to get in. For some reason it took both Karin and Pesche to place their hands on some strange pads and press down on them simultaneously to make the large doors groan open. Even then, it could only open halfway before the mechanism gave out. As soon as they were all inside, it shut behind them, closing with what Karin considered a overly melodramatic thud.

Pesche said, "I didn't think that it would take us that long just to get in here." He turned to address Karin. "Now go, there should be some kind of room with armaments here."

"Huh? But I've already got my dagger. Isn't that enough?"

"No. Even if you do, you don't know how to use it in its base form, and all zanpakutō have forms that they can take beyond their original one, most of which take the form of a sword or other weapon that can be used in physical combat, whilst at the same time having a range of abilities that can be used in conjunction with them."

Karin said, "I see, alright then," before walking off through a massive archway.

When Karin left, Dondochakka looked to Pesche and said, "You know that that zanpakutō wasn't that of a Shinigami, right, Pesche?"

"Yeah. Rather than that of a Shinigami, it seems to be more like that of an arrancar. It could be because of the way that she acquired it. If she was telling the truth, what probably happened is that her reiatsu resonated with the hollow and got absorbed into her, but her body was incapable of handling it, so, subconsciously, her body rejected it but, with her reiatsu mixed in, was unable to reject it completely, so sealed it into the form of a zanpakutō. However, her reiatsu seems to have the taint of a Shinigami on it, so it's yet to be seen what form her zanpakutō has taken. That's why we need to drill basic swordsmanship into her, as well as teaching her how to use that dagger." Then, suddenly, they heard a shrill scream and both said, "Karin-chan!" and used sonido to appear next to her.

Dondochakka asked, "What's the matter?"

Karin said, "This is…but how? It's not possib…" and sucked in a breath to prevent the sobs that were threatening to escape her.

Pesche placed his hand on her shoulder and asked, "What is wrong?"

Karin looked up at Pesche and said, "This statue…it looks just like…like…"

Pesche looked up to see an arrancar that had one flattish horn sticking out from the side of its head and multiple red lines streaking to the left side of his face. He asked, "Looks like who?"

"It looks just like my brother! But there's no way it's him, so how could this statue look like him?"

"I…don't know. Maybe it's something as simple as an ancestor of yours transforming into a hollow in the past and become an arranc…" Pesche's eyes widened and thought, '_But he can't have been just some random arrancar for them to build a statue of him. He must have been…_' Pesche sighed and said, "I'll have to look into this further for you."

"And exactly how are you going to do that, huh?"

"There was a biblioteca along the hallway that we took to get here. There may be some information in there, then there's the writing on the zocalo."

Karin looked down, seeing that he was right and that there _was_ some marks on it. She asked, "That chicken scrawl is writing?"

Pesche grunted and said, "It's the ancient language of the hollows. It is different to what we use today, but there are enough similarities that I should be able to understand most of it. Now go. Find the armoury and I will tell you what I've found out when you've returned."

Karin nodded and said, "Right," and went through one of the eight exits from the octagonal room.

When she was gone, Pesche looked at the zocalo and read, "Aqui radica Vengar Umbriobasta, Unificador de Huecorelea, Líder del Ejército Hueco. He looked up at the statue and saw that, strangely, the marks on its face had changed and now there were two vertical lines running down the length of its face, passing over its eyes. He ignored it, putting it down to some long-lost advanced technology and said, "If you truly are Karin-chan's ancestor, please, forgive me for what I may have to do." Pesche let out a relieved sigh. He shook his head as he realised that, for some reason, he had been expecting the statue to make some kind of reply or a reaction of some sort.

Karin came back through the entryway that she'd gone through, carrying four swords in open arms, two of which Pesche easily identified as the standard katana wielded by most Shinigami and arrancar, and two others with straighter blades. She also had a bow strapped over one shoulder with a quiver of arrows with heads made from the same stone as the building attached to her belt on the opposite side of her dagger. She said, "There's a bunch of these back there, but I didn't know which ones to bring, so I brought two of both of them."

"I see…and…the bow?"

"Eh," Karin shrugged. "I don't know. It just seemed to call to me, and I saw how large that lizard thing was that I ate some of, and how big that humanoid thing was before it transformed into a vasto lorde. I don't think that I want to get too close to something that big anytime soon, so, I figure that a bow like this would let me attack from a range if I need to."

"Have you ever used one before?"

"No. But I figure that if we'll be here for a while yet, there'll be plenty of time for me to learn how in the time that you _aren't_ teaching me what I'll need to know to survive."

"Alright. Then in that case, rather than the katana, since you have a straight-blade, single edged, dagger, we'll go with the straight bladed swords."

"Cool. So, when do we start?"

"Don't be so hasty. If you can't draw upon your reishi when needed, there will be no point in continuing on."

"I'll grant you that it would be…inconvenient…to say the least. But, if I can at least use a sword, even in its basest form, it should be of some help. Besides, if I get skilled enough, I may not even need to know how to use this reishi thing."

"No. there's no way that that's the case. I won't sugar-coat this for you. Even if you can get by like that at the beginning, against lesser opponents, eventually you _will_ run up against an opponent that makes proper use of their reishi-based techniques in battle, and you'll be killed. Not something that you want to happen any time soon I should think."

"No," Karin said. "Alright. What do we do first?"

Pesche said, "First…" as he reached into his loincloth. "…I'll show you some stances."

Karin blushed and looked away as she said, "What the hell do you think you're doing, you pervert!"

"I am no pervert! Please refrain from referring to me as such."

"Well what other kind of person would reach into their underwear and start playing with themselves in front of an eleven year old, huh?"

"Oh. I see. You are misunderstanding something I think."

"I'm not sure that you possess the mental faculties for that!"

Pesche said, "Look. I was just reaching for _my_ zanpakutō." He shoved his zanpakutō's hilt over Karin's shoulder, letting her see the hilt of his zanpakutō.

Karin said, "That doesn't look very useful," as she turned back to face Pesche.

"I'm sure it doesn't, right now. However…" Suddenly, the blade of glowing reishi shot from the hilt, causing Karin's eyes to widen in amazement.

Karin blinked and schooled her features before saying, "That's good. Now what do I do?"

Pesche shrunk the blade down to a similar size to Karin's dagger and said, "First you…"

XXXXX

Ichigo's eyes boggled. At the front of the class was the menace that had basically destroyed his family. Their teacher said, "From today, we'll be having a new student in this class. Her family recently moved to the area. There were mutters of acceptance and the teacher said, "Well, with that said, Miss Kuchiki, why don't you tell the class something about yourself and then…hmm…there's a seat open next to Kurosaki, so you can take that for today."

Rukia said, "Hello, I am Kuchiki Rukia. My family runs an international business corporation, so my stay here should be brief, but until I leave, I hope that we can get along." She then slightly bowed at her waist and went over to Ichigo's desk and said, "It looks like I'll be sitting next to you for a while," and held her hand out.

Ichigo read, 'Make a scene, and I'll slaughter everyone here!' and frowned. He said, "Excuse me, Ochi-sensei. We need to _talk_," and grabbed Rukia's wrist and rushed from the room, easily dragging her behind him. When they were far enough, Ichigo slammed her into a locker and demanded, "Alright, you freakin' nutjob, what the _hell_ do you think you're doing here, huh!?"

With a tone heavily laden with sarcasm, rukia said, "How scary, you big brute! You're not going to hurt me, are you?"

"First, you can knock it off with that goody-two-shoes act, okay?"

"Well, I think that it's pretty good, since I learned it overnight!"

"Arg, you know what, forget it! Just tell me what exactly it is that you think that you're doing here anyway? Weren't you meant to be heading back to your precious Soul Society, or whatever it was?"

"I can't. Only Shinigami can return to Soul Society. I haven't the power to return there anymore."

Ichigo hesitantly asked, "What do you mean?" having an uneasy feeling settle in his stomach at the prospect that he _really_ wouldn't like the answer.

"Last night, I lost all of my powers as a shinigami. I'm afraid that they were all absorbed into you, Ichigo."

"Huh? I wouldn't know anything about that."

"Thanks to you, I'm stuck in this ridiculous gigai."

"What do you mean by gigai?"

Rukia pointed at her body before saying, "It's a temporary body that serves as a vessel in an emergency. If a shingami is drastically weakened, they reside within a gigai until their powers come back."

Ichigo frowned as he said, "Oh, I get it. So that's why the others were able to see you before, right?"

"_Precisely_. And soo…" Rukia smiled as she said, "Until all of my powers come back, it's up to you, Ichigo, to perform the duties of a Shinigami. It's only natural." Ichigo got a confused look on his face as he took her words in. "You now possess the strength of a Shinigami. You do not have the right to refuse your calli-."

Ichigo cut her off, crossing his arms in front of him before stating in unequivocal terms, "No _way!_"

Rukia, asked, "Whaatt?" in a stunned tone, unable to even conceive of someone not wanting to fulfil the duties of a shinigami.

Ichigo explained, "My monster fighting days are over. That was just a one time deal!"

"Don't be ridiculous, Ichigo. You did just fine yesterday."

Ichigo looked off to the side and, in a serious tone, said, "That was only because my family was in danger. It's not like I'm ready to go off and fight for complete strangers or anything. Sorry to disappoint you, but that's the way it is."

Rukia frowned in consternation as she thoughtfully said, "I see." She sighed and pulled on a fingerless neon blue glove with a skull wrapped in orange and black flames before resignedly saying, "I guess that there's no other choice then." In a louder voice, she called out, "Hey!"

Ichigo turned to look at her to see what she wanted, only to see her charging at him and exclaimed, "Hu-uhhh?!" and staggered backwards as his soul was forcefully separated from his body. When he recovered his balance and saw his body face-down on the ground, he yelled, "What the hell happened to my body?!" He then looked at his hands and asked, "What the hell did you do to me?" taking in the fact that he was wearing the same strange clothes from the previous night.

Rukia ignored him in favour of turning around and saying, "Follow me."

XXXXXXX

A/N

Translations

Biblioteca: Library.

Zocalo: Plinth.

Aqui radica Vengar Umbriobasta, Unificador de Huecorelea, Líder del Ejército Hueco: Here lies Vengar Umbriobasta, Unifier of Hollowkind, Hollow Army Leader.

Vengar Umbriobasta: Avenge-oneself Dark-end (The name of the hollow king)


	4. Training Kicks Into Gear

A few days later, in Hueco Mundo, Pesche said, "Alright, Karichi."

Karin frowned and said, "_How_ many times am I going to have to tell you? _Don't_ call me that!"

Pesche said, "As many times as I have told you that I will do it until you are able to defeat me." He paused and said, "If you can't even do that much, you'll never stand a chance against the enemies that you'd be facing when we try to send you back to the world of the living."

Karin sighed and said, "Alright then, how about you teach me about this reiatsu thing then?"

Pesche sighed and said, "Alright, I'll go over it again before we begin. Reiatsu, is the force that is generated when you gather up your reiryoku and release it. Since you can move about here under the influence of our reiryoku, you must have a great deal of it yourself. Further evidence of that is your manifesting a zanpakutō of your own."

"You've been saying that word for a while now. What exactly is this zanpak-whatsit that you're talking about?"

"Zanpa_kutō_. It's the dagger that you found. It is the base weapon that all Shinigami and Arrancar have access too. When hollow consume each other, they absorb the reiryoku and some of the aspect of the powers of the hollow that they consumed. This is just me theorising here, but it seems to me that the zanpakutō manifested the way that it did, because, for whatever reason, your body could not handle the reiryoku that you absorbed when you consumed that hollow, and sealed them in the form of a zanpakutō."

"You said that only Shinigami and Arrancar have the ability to manifest a zanpakutō, right?"

"That's right."

"Then I don't understand how _I_ manifested one. I'm a human!"

Pesche sighed and said, "That…I don't know. I don't want to assume, or cause you any distress, but it's possible that one of your ancestors possessed the powers of an Arrancar or Shinigami and over time that power was used less and less, to the point that the innate ability to use it, was degraded to the point that it became dormant and needed an outside source to jumpstart it."

Karin said, "Like consuming a hollow."

"Exactly."

"Then…could the same thing happen if a Shinigami shared their power with someone else within my family?"

"I suppose that it is certainly possible. Why? Did you see this happen?"

"Honestly? I'm not sure. I saw a girl wearing all black stab my brother through his stomach and all of a sudden, he was wearing the strange traditional clothes that the girl had been, but he had what must have been a giant zanpakutō on his back that was about as tall as he is."

Karin couldn't see it, but Pesche frowned, as he thought, '_If she's telling the truth, then it would mean that that ancestor, would have to have been quite the recent addition to their bloodline for both of them to awaken to their power so quickly. At the same time, it eliminates the possibility of them possessing an Arrancar forebear, since it's only recently that there has been an increase in the number of Arrancar here in Hueco Mundo. It would also go a fair way to explaining why it is that she sealed the powers of the hollow that she absorbed into the form of a zanpakutō that functions similarly to that of an Arrancar. However, it also poses a problem going forward. If her body sealed the hollow reiatsu into a sword because it couldn't handle it, then if she takes those powers into herself, what will happen to her? Hmmm…_' He said, "You know what, I think that you're probably right. For now it would be best that we focus more on getting you ready to use your reiryoku. You need to focus solely on trying to feel out your reiryoku, so sit down and get comfortable." Karin sat down and crossed her legs with Pesche mimicking her. He held his hands together in his lap and closed his visible eye. He said, "Now, look deep inside yourself. Then, go even deeper. Only there will you find the source of your power.

Karin closed her eyes and frowned, thinking, '_Okay, look within myself…within myself…within myself…! How the hell am I supposed to do something like that, huh? You damned purple cyclops!_'

Pesche opened his eyes and saw that his student was frowning. He said, "If you're thinking about something, then you're not trying to tap into your power."

Karin opened her eyes and sighed. She said, "Well it's not exactly hard to figure out why! Your explanations need work! A _lot_ of work!"

Pesche sighed and said, "Alright. I'd thought that I'd explained it well enough, but apparently not. What do you want to know?"

"Where exactly this power is supposed to reside would be a good first step."

"Hmm…well…it's linked to your soul, but where exactly it resides is a bit difficult to say."

"Why's that?"

"Well, I've been told that for Shinigami, it's somewhere above the sternum. As a general rule of thumb, most hollows have their hole there, so it gets stored lower down. An Arrancar's body has a similar structure to it as a Shinigami though, so their power is stored in much the same location although, again, some Arrancar have their hollow hole there so theirs is somewhere else. I'm not entirely sure where it is on a human, let alone someone such as yourself."

Karin pointedly asked, "What do you mean by that?" unsure if she should be annoyed or not.

Pesche said, You have Shinigami reiatsu, but are still yet human, and a live one as well. So the structure of your soul is completely unknown to me."

"Hmm…you said that I had shinigami in me somewhere, right?"

Pesche said, "That's right, why?" as Karin closed her eyes. Karin imagined a point to the right of her heart in her mind's eye and focused on that point. She felt herself falling into that point. Dondochakka rushed into the room as Pesche's eyes widened, the room suddenly getting heavier and starting to shake under the force of Karin's reiatsu.

Both of them gasped as Karin opened her eyes and they saw a red aura appear around her that was reflected in her eyes. She smirked and said, "How's that, Pesche?"

"That's good. Now, let go of it." Karin closed her eyes and imagined the power receding from her control and the shaking of the room died down. Alright, now that you've done it once, it should come easier to you over time, but, any techniques that you would need to know will only be able to be used once you've gotten that experience. So, for now, I'm afraid that you're just going to have to knuckle down and practice accessing and releasing it."

Karin sighed and said, "Yeah, I kinda figured."

XXXXX

In Hueco Mundo, Starrk looked off into the distance, prompting an arrancar with dark green hair to look at him and ask, "What is it, Starrk-sama?"

Stark sighed and said, "How many times to I need to tell you, Lucia. You don't need to stand on ceremony with me."

Lucia sighed and said, "As always, one more time than last."

"Well, whatever. It's probably nothing…or is it something?" Lucia's eyes narrowed. Starrk sighed. He said, "I just felt a reiatsu coming from that direction," flicking his thumb towards the east. It felt faint, so, like I said, it's probably nothing to be concerned about."

Lucia thought, '_I didn't feel a thing. I still can't, even though I'm searching for it, so it's probably too far out for me to sense. But if that's the case, then…_' She bit her lip. she said, "Starrk-sama. Please give me permission to search it out?"

Starrk sighed and said, "Alright. Fine. But if there is any sign of something being afoot, come back here as quickly as you can."

"Why? Wouldn't it be more beneficial for Las Noches if I were to determine the source of the disturbance, if that were the case?"

"No. It'd be too much of a hassle to deal with, considering Aizen-sama's more recent behaviour."

Lucia said, "Very well, Starrk-sama," and nodded before leaving without another word. When she was outside of Las Noches, she frowned as she thought, 'Hmm…I suppose that I should probably use sonido if I want to do this as quickly as possible, but, given how far out that reiatsu signature must have been, I could be running low by the time I get there, in which case, if there is a threat, I would have no way of combating it." She sighed and said, "This is going to be a pain," and started walking in the direction that Starrk had indicated.

XXXXX

Two weeks later, Lucia blinked as she saw a structure start to appear in the distance and thought, '_Did I get turned around? No. then what the heck's that supposed to be? Hueco Mundo itself has only been restored recently. Is there some other hollow civilisation? If so, _should_ I return and get Starrk-sama? No. It's clearly still some distance away, so I can't see the condition that it's in. I should probably at least wait until I can verify the threat._'

It took her another two weeks to reach the building. She frowned as she looked at the gate and said, "Hmm…" as she studied the handprint on the left side of the gate. She thought, '_So, it's a left hand print on this one and a right hand on the other. I suppose that I probably have to press down on them at the same time, don't I?_' She back to the one on the right. '_Too far for me to reach by myself, so it's probably intended for use by two people._' She grinned and said, "Well, too bad for them then." She stepped back a few steps before bending her knee forward and placing a hand on it and moving one hand back before cracking her neck and saying, "Well, I'm not as good at this as Zommari is, but here goes. Gemelos Sonído," and her image blurred. Two identical versions of Lucia appeared in front of the panels, causing it to swing open. The one on the left sonídoed through the door as soon as she was able, her clone fading from existence as the gate closed.

As soon as she appeared inside the large courtyard, she had to use her sonído again to avoid the purple cero that had been shot directly at her. She looked up at her assailant and frowned. She said, "It's you!"

Pesche said, "So, you've become an Arrancar as well, Lucia?"

"That's right. But what happened to you though? I had thought that once reaching the state of an Arrancar, the possibility of regressing to a previous state was eliminated."

"It is, however taking up the mask of another hollow will allow you to gain more power."

"Hn. Nee-san would disagree with making use of such a method." She cocked her head, sensing something that shouldn't have been possible. She demanded, "What are you doing with a human here if you haven't regressed?"

"I'm not sure how she ended up here, but she has a powerful reiatsu lying within her. So powerful that any attempt to leave would be noticed by the Espada and they, or their Fracción, will be sent to investigate. She currently has little to no control over it, so it usually registers at negligible at best and Dondochakka and my reiatsu is enough to cover it for now. Currently though, we are training her to be able to protect herself against that possibility."

"Hmm…there might be a problem with tha-!" Lucia's eyes widened and she frowned angrily, her reiatsu rapidly rising as she drew her sword. She used Sonído and appeared in front of Pesche as she swung her sword down on him.

Pesche barely had time to get his own sword up to defend against her strike and was sent flying back into the wall of the fortress. He said, "Infinite Slick," spraying the liquid on the ground between them.

Lucia said, "Lucir, Luciérnaga!" causing four wings made from magenta reiatsu to appear on her back, which she used to fly over the liquid and sliced at Pesche, trying to cut his head off. she demanded, "_Why_ did you do it?!" as her wings disappeared and she force her reiatsu into her hand and hardened it and fired her Bala at the purple traitor.

Pesche leapt to the side and rolled into a standing position and proceeded to deflect the barrage of Bala sent at him as he said, "Too much reiatsu escaped from the cut that Nnoitora made in her mask and she shrunk to the size of a child, losing all of her memories of her time in Hueco Mundo as a result," as he defended himself from two more strike, this time, having gained proper footing, without flying backwards. We thought that keeping her away from Hueco Mundo was the best thing for everyone, lest Nnoitora try to attack her again in her far weakened state. Also, she never liked fighting and Aizen Sousuke's plans for war with Soul Society weren't sitting well with her."

Lucia sighed and said, "Nee-san's pacifism _was_ always a problem, as she stood down, returning her sword to its scabbard.

Pesche sighed and said, "I'm glad that's over," thinking, '_This isn't good. Dondochakka and I have been training in secret ourselve, to protect Nel-sama, but Lucia was almost overpowering me, and with such ease too. She could be approaching espada level herself. We'll have to redouble our own training too._' He sighed and said, "I'm sorry, but can I ask you to not see your sister."

Lucia threateningly asked, "Why would I do _that_?"

"It could prompt the return of her memories, and if she regains her memories, but not her body, who knows what it would do to her."

Lucia sighed and said, "Fine. But I'm going to warn you to be careful, about a month ago, Starrk-sama felt Shinigami reiatsu in this direction. He gave me permission to come out here and investigate, but you're going to need to be careful or the other espada will notice and _they_ aren't going to go so easy on you, or this Shinigami that you're training, as I did."

"So, you're leaving then?"

"Yes."

"Can I ask you two things before you leave then?"

"Sure."

"How did you get in here?"

"A new Espada, Zommari, likes to claim that he's the fastest Espada and created a derivative technique to sonído that lets him make copies of himself. I'm nowhere near his level with it, but I did manage to recreate it myself…or…at least an imitation of it, whether or not it's the same method that he uses, I couldn't tell you for certain."

"I see," Pesche said, thinking, '_So, this place isn't as secure as we'd suspected. This could be a problem._'

"Now, the other question?"

"How strong have the espada become?"

"Nnoitora has become even more bestial since you've been gone and somehow managed to eke his way into being the Quinto Espada. As to how strong in comparison to where he was, I'd say, at the upper limit, one and a half times, but again, that's just a guess on my part since I've never actually fought him myself."

"I see," Pesche said, frowning, considering the ramifications of what he was being told and what adjustments that they'd need to make.

"So, am I going to be needing help to get out of here, or…"

"No. it's actually a lot easier to leave this place than it is to get back in. that's why we make sure to always leave at least one person in here when we go outside."

"Go outside? Why? If the point is to hide out somewhere and train, wouldn't it be safer if you just stayed in here."

"Yes, but the Shinigami reiatsu that Starrk felt, actually belongs to a human, though I'm uncertain how she came by her shinigami reiatsu."

Lucia frowned and said, "Could you tell me where in the real world she came from?

"I believe that she said that it was a place called Karakura Town. Why?"

"I think that it might be an idea for me to take a trip to the real world before arriving back at Las Noches."

"You're going back then?"

"Yes. it will be far too suspicious if I don't return."

"That makes sense. But please, don't tell anybody about us?"

"If Starrk-sama pushes me, I will tell him, but knowing him, nothing will come of it.

"Even so, please avoid it as much as you can. After all, the more people that know about this place."

"What _is_ this place exactly, anyway?"

"We _believed_ that it was Las Madrugada, but the armoury here has weapons belonging to shinigami as well as a number of bows, so, as ttof yet, we haven't quite figured that out."

Lucia said, "I see. Then I _will_ be seeing you again, Pesche Guatiche," and sonidoed back to the main gate of the fortress.

When Pesche was back inside he sonidoed to Dondochakka, who was studying the statues, trying to figure out the mechanism by which the one that Karin had identify to look like her unknown brother, changed appearance to see if there was anything more that they could learn about where they were, or what the Arrancars had done to earn the right to have their images carved as they were. He didn't look up from his work as he asked, "So, who was that?"

"It was Nel-sama's sister."

"Lucia?"

Pesche nodded before realising that Dondochakka hadn't turned to face him and, if he had had a pupil, he would have been seen to roll his visible eye. He said, "Yes."

"So, how was she?"

"Apparently she's become one of the Primera Espada's Fracción, though back when we were still fracción, she would have been in the running to take over the position of the Décimo Espada, Vilasco Vilazquez."

"Then why is she remaining as a fracción?"

"I didn't ask her, but there are two reasons that I can see. One is that she doesn't want to, given what happened with Nel-sama, it's not hard to see why. That, or that the level of the Espada has increased more dramatically than we had expected."

Dondochakka exclaimed, "That's not good, don'tcha know?"

"Yes! I'm quite aware of that! That's not the only problem though."

"Huh?" Dondochakka asked, both not understanding what _else_ could be a problem, but also not _wanting_ to know."

"Nnoitora has increased his strength by at least 1.5 times more than what it already was, and has reached the rank of Quinto Espada."

"Has there been any more changes with the Espada?"

"I didn't get the chance to ask her before she left."

"If that's so, then our Cero Sincretico…"

"May not be enough to protect Nel-sama, no."

"So what do we do then?"

"Lucia showed me a technique that didn't exist when we were Nel-sama's Fracción, but it seemed as though it could be performed by any regular spiritually aware being."

"Really? How did she do it?"

"She seemed to gather her reiatsu in her hand before launching it at me. It seemed to be significantly less powerful than a cero, but at least twenty times the speed of just about any Arrancar other than _maybe_ Starrk."

"Even if that's so, it might be a good way to teach Karin-chan how to control her reiatsu without alerting Hueco Mundo, don't'cha know."

"That's a good idea, though I think that I'd like her to still focus on her swordsmanship for now while we figure out the mechanism ourselves."

"I suppose. But I still think that it would be more beneficial for her to get a better grasp on her reiatsu before she tries to contact her zanpakutō."

"Contact it? What do you mean? An arrancar zanpakutō just stores their hollow power in the form of a sword."

"Maybe so. But even if the Zanpakutō _is_, Karin-chan is still human, and has the power of a Shinigami, don'tcha know?"

"So what?"

"According to some of the texts here, a Shinigami's zanpakutō contains a spirit that they need to interact with somehow in order to make full use of its powers, which are sourced from the individual to compensate for what they themselves are lacking in."

"So you think that, because Karin-chan has the power of a Shinigami, she may need to interact with her zanpakutō the same way that regular Shinigami do?"

"It's worth considering anyway, don'cha think?"

"I will think on this. which book did you find that in?"

"I…" Dondochakka sighed regretfully before finishing, "…can't remember." Pesche rushed over and kicked Dondochakka in the side of his head, knocking him down before starting to stomp on him. Dondochakka started pleading, "I'm sorry, don'tcha know!?"

Pesche sighed and said, "Anyway, I'm going to go and see how Karin-chan is going.

Dondochakka said, "Alright, I'll keep trying to figure this statue out."

Pesche nodded before leaving Dondochakka to the mystery of the statues. When he'd reached Karin, he saw her swinging the asauchi faster and transitioning smoother than he'd seen her yet and frowned, thinking, '_She's a lot better than she was yesterday. She must be developing the correct muscular structure and it's only been what, three weeks since I started her on those drills? Although she's still got a long way to go before I can start sparring with her._'

Karin stopped, feeling him return and looked at him. she asked, "So, who was that that you were fighting?"

"Fighting? What do you mean?" Pesche asked, trying to avoid answering.

Karin wasn't going to let him hide the truth. She said, "I could feel your clashing reiatsu's from here. Were they strong? They must have been from what I was feeling."

"Yes. Very much so."

"So, is that the calibre of opponent that you're training me to fight."

"It was, yes."

"_Was_?"

"She informed me that the strength of opponent that you'll be contending with, are at least three to four times as powerful as she is, or even more."

"Three to…" Karin's eyes widened before narrowing, thinking, '_Then I've got no time to waste standing around gawking,_' and started at the beginning of the drill that Pesche had shown her.

XXXXX

Meanwhile, in the world of the living only four days had passed since Karin was taken away, and Ichigo was glowering at Rukia, who had only _just_ explained to him what she'd done to his father and younger sister. He said, "So let me get this straight. You Shinigami can just come along and rewrite people's memories _whenever_ you _want_?"

"The effectiveness depends largely on the strength of their reiatsu, but yes, that is the gist of it."

"There's one more thing that we need to take care of."

"Oh yeah, and what's that supposed to be, huh?"

"You…seem to still be hung up over the fact that I came up with a cover story to explain the reason that your sister was all of a sudden, just gone."

Ichigo sighed and said, "Well, I suppose that I'll have to thank you for that at least. But even so, isn't there some kind of ethical rules that you Shinigami need to abide by?"

"There is."

"And rewriting memories as you see fit doesn't violate _any_ of them?"

"No. as a matter of fact, they actually necessitate it."

"What? Why?!"

"A Shinigami's duty is to protect the world of the living by protecting the humans that live there from both Hollow and Togabito. At the same time, we also need to reduce our imprint upon this world. You tell me, what do you think would happen if knowledge that there existed beings like Shinigami that can make use of what you would consider magic?"

Ichigo sighed and said, "Alright, I guess I can see your point. But wait. If that's a consideration, wouldn't that mean that that's something that has already happened in the past?"

"Hmm…" Rukia said, "Maybe, but if it has, I certainly haven't heard of it. When my powers return and I can go back I'll make sure to look into the matter."

"You can do that? I would have thought that information like that would have been restricted."

"It would be, but the Noble Kuchiki clan is in charge of the defence of the Daireishokairō, so I am one of the few people that actually can."

"I see. I suppose that it must be good to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth."

Rukia grunted and looked down with a sad look on her face. She said, "I wish that that were true. If it was, then…" she sighed.

"What? Then you mean that you…"

"I actually grew up in district 50 of the Rukongai area, and the higher the number, the rougher it gets. I was adopted into the clan during my time in the Shinōreijutsuin. Even now I don't know why it happened."

"I see. Well, I for one am glad that you weren't born into the clan."

"What? Why?"

"Because, if that were the case, then I find it difficult to believe that you would have taken that blow from the hollow and loaned me your powers."

"Well, I don't know about that, ultimately, we'll never know since that's not how it happened."

"True enough. Wait a sec. You just said Togabito, didn't you?"

"That's right. What about them?"

"You've never mentioned them before. Are they another type of hollow?"

"I suppose that you could look at them that way. They are beings that turned into Hollow and slain with a shinigami's sword that have committed sins during their life and find a way back to this world."

What? I thought that you said that the Zanpakutō cleanses the soul of sins and sends them to soul society."

"I did, and they do. But that's only for sins committed that they'd committed after death. The zanpakutō holds no sway over what they've done during their life. _That_ is why we are _Shini_gami, not _Jinsei_gami."

"I see. I guess that that makes sense. Wait. Wouldn't that mean that Hollow should be responsible for the oversight of the living?"

"What? No! Don't be absurd! Hollow are mindless beasts that only seek to satiate their hunger. That is all."

"Well, if you say so," Ichigo said, though he felt something within him telling him that that wasn't the case. Ichigo thought, '_Well, even if that _isn't_ the case, it's not like I can just plug 'responsibility of hollow in maintaining the balance between the real world and the afterlife' into google and get the answers that I need. The best place that I can think of that _would_ have the answers to those questions, would be this __Daireishokairō_ _that Rukia was going on about, but it's not like I know how to get there. Maybe it's got something to do with the _zanpak-whatsit_, but mine's just the product of the amalgamation of her power and mine, so it may not possess all of the functions that a regular zanpak-whatsit would have had. Even if it _can_ activate whatever method that they use, it's not like I'd have the foggiest idea of how I would go about doing it. It's not like I can just ask it after all._' He sighed and shook his head, removing thoughts of the roles that the Shinigami and hollow play in the maintenance of the world. Ichigo took note of where they'd ended up and frowned. He asked, "What the heck are we supposed to be doing here at the batting cages?"

Rukia said, "We need to teach you how to use your Zanpakutō. This is hardly comparable, however it is a good starting point since you won't be fighting against humans that make use of the same method as you will be when we're done. Now, take the stance that I showed you before."

"Right!" Ichigo nodded and moved his right foot back as he gripped the baseball bat, holding it out in front of him.

XXXXXXX

**A/N**

**Translations**

_Daireishokairō_: Great Spirit Book Gallery.

Shinōreijutsuin: Spiritual Arts Academy or Shinigami Academy

_Jinseigami_: God of Life.


End file.
